Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Kioku LLC ("Kioku", "we", "our", or "us"), the provider of the Kioku service. By downloading, installing, or accessing Kioku (including the iPhone app, Mac application, and web interface at kiokuu.com), you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the service.

2. Description of Service

Kioku provides personal capture, search, recall, and summarization tools for iPhone and macOS, with web dashboards and AI integrations. Features include automated audio transcription, screenshot OCR indexing on supported platforms, speaker recognition, structured activity summaries, and optional signed webhook automations.

3. User Account & Security

You access Kioku by signing in with your Apple or Google account. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and credentials. You agree to use the service in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

4. User Content & Ownership

Optional live captions require a separate permission choice on the device. While the live-caption view is open, Kioku sends microphone audio (and Mac audio when you select it) through its backend to Soniox for live transcription, temporary speaker labels, and optional translation. Close the view to stop future live processing. Captions are provisional and do not replace the final saved transcript.

Recording processing is part of the service. Kioku chooses its transcription and memory-processing providers automatically; there is no provider selector or saved-recording processing switch. The processor and retention details below apply to eligible recordings. Live captions still require a separate device permission.

You retain full ownership of all data, recordings, transcripts, screenshots, and text captured or processed by Kioku ("User Content"). Kioku does not claim any ownership rights over your User Content.

You must have every right, notice, and consent required to record, upload, and process User Content, including permission from other people whose voices, images, communications, or personal information are captured. You must not use Kioku for covert or unlawful surveillance, record where recording is prohibited, or upload content you have no right to process.

The iPhone app asks for explicit, versioned permission before sending recordings—which contain biometric voice characteristics—and photos you take in Kioku to the processors identified below for transcription, speaker separation, image understanding, and photo-to-memory association. Transcripts and related text may be processed by Google AI or OpenAI to create memories. OpenAI text processing is currently limited to the service owner's explicitly authorized trial; other accounts continue using Google. Broader use is deferred until renewed recipient permission can be enforced. Google, Soniox, and OpenAI are third-party processors, and Kioku separately derives cloud voice profiles to recognize speakers over time. A material recipient change requires a fresh Allow choice in the updated iPhone app, including before queued media uploads; an earlier Google-only grant does not authorize the new permission version, and neither does the earlier permission covering Google and OpenAI text processing. You can decline without recording or uploading and can withdraw prospectively from the iPhone Profile menu. Disabling OpenAI response storage does not eliminate its default abuse-monitoring or temporary prompt-cache retention, as explained below. Data already processed cannot be recalled, but you can delete your Kioku cloud account and live cloud data from Settings.

Service processors and temporary storage

These services support Kioku’s automatic cloud processing. Named processors may receive the content described here, including recordings, images, transcripts, and related context. Voice embeddings and identity matching remain within Kioku.

• Google Cloud: Capture events are accepted by the Kioku service running on Google Cloud Run. Public TLS terminates at Google’s managed load balancer; authorization, media decryption, voice inference, and provider orchestration run in the service under a dedicated least-privilege service account. Persistent raw audio, screenshots, and camera photos are encrypted per user before GCS storage and scheduled for pruning after 30 days; the dedicated current-media bucket has a 35-day orphan lifecycle failsafe. Account, OAuth, transcript, OCR, browser, memory, people/voice, search, job, and delivery state is queryable in a private Cloud SQL PostgreSQL database. Cloud SQL encrypts transport and storage and maintains backups and point-in-time recovery, but its database engine and authorized Google Cloud/Kioku database administration are inside the plaintext trust boundary.
• Google Vertex AI: Bounded raw audio, screenshot pixels, and camera photos are sent from the enclave to Vertex Gemini for timestamped transcription, diarization, OCR, image understanding, and photo-to-memory association. Settled-episode transcripts, OCR, application and window provenance, exact URLs, browser-tab metadata, and derived textual context may also be sent for summaries and recall features. Google processes this material under its applicable enterprise data terms. Voice embeddings and persistent cross-meeting identity matching are computed separately by Kioku inside the enclave and are not delegated to Gemini.
• Soniox live captions: After you separately allow live-caption processing on your Mac or iPhone, Kioku streams your selected audio source (microphone, or Mac system audio when selected) through its authenticated backend to Soniox for live transcription, temporary speaker separation, and optional translation. This runs only while the live-caption view is open and your subscription or trial permits recording. Kioku does not persist the live transcript or audio in a separate caption archive; normal recording storage and final memory processing retain their existing policies. Soniox states that its real-time API does not retain audio or transcripts or use them for training. Live-caption audio and transcripts for Kioku’s production service are processed in the United States. Soniox account metadata, usage, and billing data are outside its content-residency guarantee. Closing live captions stops future streaming but cannot recall already processed audio.
• Soniox saved recording processing: Kioku automatically sends eligible new recordings to Soniox for transcription in the configured United States or European Union region. Soniox's asynchronous API stores uploaded audio and transcripts until deletion; its documented automatic deletion period is 30 days. Kioku requests deletion after provider processing and when the account is deleted; cleanup can remain pending. Google still receives audio for transcription fallback, and memory authoring follows the Google/OpenAI text policy above. Voice matching and profile learning run locally in Kioku's cloud under existing voice permissions. Backend provider selection is automatic and has no user setting. Saved recording processing does not enable live captions or change older recordings.
• OpenAI text processing (owner trial): Only the service owner's account, under its explicit trial authorization, may send transcripts, OCR, application and window provenance, URLs, browser-tab metadata, and derived text to the OpenAI API for memory summaries, reconciliation, and related text processing. Google is the default audio and image processor. Eligible saved recordings use Soniox for transcription, with Google receiving audio for transcription fallback. All other accounts continue using Google for these text stages. Provider selection is independent for each processing stage; a retry may use the next permitted provider. Voice embeddings and biometric identity matching remain in Kioku. Kioku disables stored Responses with store: false. This does not provide zero retention: under OpenAI's default API policy, abuse-monitoring logs may include prompts and responses and are retained for up to 30 days, or longer when legally required or reasonably necessary to protect its services or others from harm. Temporary prompt caching can also retain processed representations. OpenAI does not use API data to train its models unless the customer opts in. See OpenAI's API data controls. Kioku does not promise an approved zero-retention arrangement or a particular processing region for this trial.
• Paddle: If you purchase or manage a subscription on the web, Kioku shares only a random billing account identifier and selected plan through Paddle's hosted flow; no capture content is sent to Paddle.
• Web3Forms: The marketing-site access-request form sends only the name and email address you enter to Web3Forms; it does not send capture content.
• Resend email delivery: If you enable email notifications, Kioku sends your email address and the email subject and body to Resend for delivery. Notifications omit memory content by default. If you choose to include content, the email may contain memory titles and brief text under that preference. Disabling notifications stops future email delivery.

5. Plans, Recording Allowances & Billing

A new signed-in Kioku account includes one three-day trial with up to 8 hours of recording, starting when it first checks recording access. The trial needs no payment information, creates no subscription, and does not renew or charge automatically. Signing out, reinstalling, or signing in again does not restart it. After the trial ends or its recording time is used, recording requires a paid plan. There is no ongoing free recording tier. Kioku offers paid monthly or annual plans; a subscription begins only when you choose and confirm it through Apple or Paddle. The provider shows the exact price, taxes, renewal date, and cancellation terms before you confirm. Previously purchased provider trials remain subject to their confirmed renewal terms; for an Apple introductory trial, cancel at least 24 hours before it ends to avoid renewal. Recording time is charged prospectively in one-minute server-timed wall-clock leases while cloud capture is active, rounded up to that granularity. Microphone and system-audio tracks are not summed, and speech or silence does not pause the clock; screenshot processing during silence is included. Searches, request retries, duplicate lease requests, and Vertex token telemetry do not add recording time. Paid-plan allowances reset every seven days at the exact time shown, including for monthly and annually billed plans, and do not roll over. The one-time account trial does not reset.

After the account trial expires or its recording time is exhausted, a recording attempt asks you to choose a monthly plan. When a paid-plan allowance is exhausted, Kioku rejects new cloud capture and directs you to upgrade or wait for that plan's reset. Existing cloud memories are not deleted. Kioku does not charge automatic usage overages at launch. Current price, included time, currency, tax, and renewal terms shown before purchase control over examples or older copy.

Paid plans renew on the monthly or annual cadence selected at checkout until canceled. For subscriptions purchased through Apple's in-app purchase system, Apple processes and administers the App Store purchase, including billing, receipts, subscription management, taxes where applicable, and refund requests under Apple's terms, and Kioku enables a plan only after verified transaction evidence is bound to the signed-in Kioku account. For web purchases, Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record and handles payment, tax, invoices, returns, refunds, disputes, buyer support, and subscription management under Paddle's applicable buyer terms. Kioku does not receive complete payment-card details from either provider. Manage or cancel with the provider through which you subscribed; timing and any proration are shown before confirmation. See the Kioku Refund Policy.

6. Service Modifications & Termination

We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the service at any time. You may discontinue your use of Kioku and delete your cloud account and live cloud data at any time from in-app Settings or Web Dashboard Settings. The narrow content-free account tombstone and, when needed, pseudonymous encrypted Apple transaction-routing and cleanup record that remain after deletion are described in the Privacy Policy.

7. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability

Kioku is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Kioku shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages resulting from your use of the service.

8. Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding these Terms of Service, please contact us at support@kiokuu.com.